


Time’s Joke (He who laughs last, laughs best)

by Creed Cascade (creedcascade)



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Torchwood
Genre: Jack Harkness: Time Lord, M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-11
Updated: 2011-11-11
Packaged: 2017-10-25 22:55:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/275764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creedcascade/pseuds/Creed%20Cascade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor thinks he’s the last Time Lord. He's wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time’s Joke (He who laughs last, laughs best)

No one should have been able to find the TARDIS. The Doctor was hiding and feeling sorry for himself. But someone found him and the alarms set off, signalling that there was an intruder. He didn’t have the heart to care. A deep sorrow surrounded him that even a new companion couldn’t sway. It seemed like only yesterday Rose or Martha had been by his side. Maybe it had been. Yesterday or a millennia… it didn’t matter to a Time Lord.

“If you’ve come to kill me…”

Out of the shadows stepped a figure the Doctor thought he would never see again. “Hello, Doctor.”

If the Doctor carried a gun, he would have pulled one on the creature that was pretending to be Captain Jack Harkness. “Who are you?”

The cocky grin was just like he remembered it. “You wound my pride, Doctor, I thought I was unforgettable.”

The Doctor reached out with all of his senses, trying to find the deception and lie. But it was Jack. Jack with all of his cockiness, joy for life and wonderful loyalty. He felt more power than he remembered. Power that had only been rivalled by that of himself and the Master. It was a raw, untrained power.

The Doctor stepped closer. “Who are you?”

Jack’s lip curled into a smirk and shook his head. “Captain Jack Harkness.”

Jack was slouched against the wall and the Doctor paced in front of him. “You can’t be.”

“Didn’t the Face of Boe… didn’t I tell you, you are not alone?”

The Doctor’s face scrunched a little in a way that Jack had associated especially with this reincarnation. “This is impossible.”

“Doctor…” Jack chuckled. He wanted nothing more than to touch him after being denied so long, but it wasn’t time just yet. Jack knew he had to win the Doctor’s trust. “You should know by now that anything is possible.”

“You’re not Jack.”

“I’m not quite the Jack you remember, but I am Jack.” The Doctor was looking at him like he was a puzzle. And Jack didn’t mind. The Doctor liked mysteries and obsessed over unanswered questions. “I don’t know what I am, Doctor. But I think I’m what the Time Lords were before they were arrogant enough to call themselves Lords.”

The Doctor stalked closer to him, but dared not touch. “I’m the last. The Master is gone.”

“You’re a Time Lord, Doctor. Not God.”

“And you are?”

“No…” Jack answered instantly. “I’m not God. I am… I’m Jack. Better than just calling me The Captain, don’t you think? I’m Jack. Just like you’re the Doctor.”

The Doctor seemed disconnected and troubled. “You can’t be.”

Jack reached out and grabbed the Doctor’s hand, laying it on his own chest. He gripped the Doctor’s wrist tight, sliding his thumb under the cuff. “I am. I don’t know how. But I know why… so, you won’t be alone anymore.”

The Doctor looked down at Jack’s hand like it was a strange new alien. “Time Lords aren’t just…” He struggled for the words. “…created. Well, I mean, I was born, but that’s different.”

“See, I missed this.” Jack used his grasp on the Doctor’s hand to tug him closer. “This whole omnipotent confusion.”

The Doctor licked his lips. “Jack…”

Jack tugged him close enough that so that their chests were pressed together and Jack wrapped his arm around the Doctor’s waist. “That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”

The Doctor lost some of his stunned look and rolled his eyes. “You have to be Jack. Only you would make a joke as bad as that.”

“And only I would have the nerve to do this.” Jack leaned in and kissed the Doctor with millennia upon millennia of pent up lust, worry and mostly love. When he pulled away he rested his forehead against  
the Doctor’s. “I missed you.”

The Doctor was used to people loving him. Each of his companions had loved him in some way. And he had loved them all back, but not in the way they desired. He didn’t love them enough to stay with them. Now that Jack was touching him, he could feel so much rushing into his system. Power. Need. Love.

“I love you…” The Doctor whispered, but he couldn’t stand to hear Jack say anything just yet. “How did you find me?”

“Sheer stubbornness?” When the Doctor gave him a long-suffering look, Jack added, “My own TARDIS… well, a poor man’s TARDIS.” The Doctor looked doubtful. “A million years of life can give you a new perspective on life. Though I have to admit it was easier to build once I had thumbs back.”

The Doctor wrestled his hand out of Jack’s grip. He was touching Jack now. Running his hand continuously over his back and face. “If you regenerated… then how come you look the same?”

Jack shrugged and slipping his hand into the Doctor’s jacket. He tugged the shirt up and felt warm skin. “I liked my skin. I missed it. So, when the Face of Boe finally died… or what I thought was dying, I knew I had the choice. So, I choose this face. The face you remembered. And the body…” Jack whispered low. “Can’t beat perfection.”

The Doctor chuckled with amusement. It was the first time he had done so in a long, long time. “And your vanity had nothing to do with it?”

“Well, perfection is perfection.” Jack laughed and kissed him again. They wrapped arms around one another and kissed first slowly, then passionately. And no matter how much Jack wanted to snog the Doctor in the control room of the TARDIS, there was something more important he had to say. Something he had been waiting literally forever to say. “I love you.”

The crinkles around the Doctor’s eyes deepened as he smiled with frighteningly deep love and possessiveness. He was scared at of the feelings welling up inside that he had thought dead. Now that he had Jack in his arms, he didn’t think he’d ever be able to let him go. “You’ve mellowed with your old age, Jack. You make me think this is some sort of joke…”

“No, it was the Universe’s cruel joke keeping me away for you for so long. But, I had to go through it to become whatever I am now.”

The Doctor pulled away just enough to bring his hands up to frame Jack’s face. He could feel the power in Jack. It was still so raw and untrained. Uncorrupted. “Do you know what you are?”

Jack returned his gaze with a strong certainty. “I’m Jack.”

“But do you know what that means?” The Doctor challenged. The Time Lords had to have been created some how, and maybe this was how the first of his kind had evolved. It was rather ironic that the last Time Lord was forever attached to this beautiful, timeless creature. “Can’t you feel the power? Are you tempted…”

Jack knew what the Doctor was inferring. It was the same temptation the Master had given into. The temptation to control the Universe. To use the power he possessed for his own will. Jack had felt it and only used to it so far to find the Doctor.

“I’m only tempted by you.”

“Jack…” The Doctor’s voice became serious, tinged with apprehension and something stranger. A sensation so ancient and raw that Jack didn’t have a name for it. “I am…”

“Mine.” Now Jack’s voice was tinged with the same emotion. “It’s the darkness that tempts me the most, Doctor. What I could have done to get closer to you sooner…”

“But you didn’t, did you?” The Doctor begged. “You didn’t give in, did you, Jack?”

“No…” Jack admitted. “There were times that I touched the shadows, but…”

The Doctor shut Jack up with a quick kiss. The loneliness that had plagued him for his endless, taunting life was just slightly less crushing with the seed of hope with Jack here. If Jack was ever taken from him, he wasn’t sure he could resist embracing the darkness to get him back.

The Doctor pulled him close and whispered into Jack’s ear, “We all dance with the darkness.”

“You’re very poetic…” Jack said the words with a dry mouth.

There was thick silence between when the Doctor didn’t say anything. There were a million reasons why he should walk away now. Countless lives that said he should get out of his TARDIS and run to the end of the Universe. But only one reason to stay. Jack. And Jack was all that mattered now.

“I don’t think I can ever let you go, Jack.”

And Jack said something that made the Doctor know he was still his Jack. “That’s the best pick up line I’ve ever heard.” His fingers moved and tugged onto on the Doctor’s tie.

There were so many things he could say. There were so many things the Doctor wanted to say. Instead, the Doctor ran his fingers under Jack’s suspenders and snapped it them. Having sex in the control of the TARDIS wasn’t as sordid as it could be.

The Doctor was amused to find that Jack’s clothing was still authentic to the World War Two era that he adored. His fingers made quick work of the buttons closing Jack’s fly. And Jack was touching him too. It was sensual and frantic all at the same time as Jack pulled at his tie, then attacked his buttons.  
Jack fisted his hands into the Doctor’s jacket and shifted him back violently, slamming him back against the wall. The air escaped from the Doctor in a quick hiss and they both felt the surge of power between them.

It was a sharp sizzle. Unseen, but just as real as a sun gone supernova. And this was why the Doctor could never truly love a human with all his being. He loved them all, but they were like fireflies. Their brief lives burning bright, but too briefly in his existence. Having a Time Lord in his arms connecting to him like this made everything else pale in comparison.

As their bodies connected, their souls intertwined. Their powers merged. Jack’s raw and enthusiastic power grappled with the Doctor’s ancient power. Jack’s had a purity and strength to it that was truly stunning to the Doctor. Their pants were open and shirts pushed off their shoulders as they rutted together.

Spiritual and physical ecstasy blended together, pushing both Jack and the Doctor closer to the edge. They clung to each other, mouths clashing and bodies jerking. It was breathtaking and beyond painful.  
They woke up together crumpled on the floor of the TARDIS, wrapped around one another. Its gentle hum was welcoming. The Doctor felt whole with Jack.

Jack didn’t open his eyes from where his head was resting on the Doctor’s chest. His hair was rumpled, but still looked perfect in its chaos. “Is it always like that?”

The Doctor couldn’t help ruffling Jack’s hair more. “No. No, it’s never been like that before.”  
Jack cracked one eye open. “That’s because I’m perfect.”

“And modest.” The Doctor said this with a straight face. The bond between them was surging, but calm.  
“What do you say to a little adventure, Jack?”

“I say, that I doubt there’s anything new you can show me.”

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. “Is that a challenge?”

Jack rolled so that he had the Doctor pinned beneath him. He grinned down at him, hair flopping down over his eyes. “Yeah, right after we find a bed. And please, do wear your glasses, Doctor…”

END.


End file.
